Ruby Rose closed his eyes and took a deep breath as the airship landed. This was it. The moment he'd been waiting for. Beacon Academy was just a few short steps away! Ruby released his breath with a happy squee and pulled on Yang's arm as he looked up to her face, "Come on Yang! Let's go let's go let's go letsgoletsgoletsgoletsgo!"
Yang grinned at his enthusiasm and let him drag her by her arm through the airship and down the ramp onto the landing platform. There they both stopped to stare up and gawk at the sight of Beacon Academy. They'd both seen plenty of pictures before, of course, but in person the campus grounds were so much more impressive.
While Yang continued to appreciate the architecture and landscaping of the Academy grounds, Ruby found his attention quickly caught by the diversity of weapons wielded by his fellow students departing the airship. From the simplest Dust imbued spears and swords to the most intricately engineered mecha-shift weapons, all sorts of tools of the trade surrounded Ruby. He methodically evaluated every weapon he could see, and after twenty seconds he was relieved to find nothing that came close to the perfection of Crescent Rose, at least not at first glance. Ruby knew better than most that when it came to a huntsman's weapon, looks could be very deceiving.
He looked back over to Yang, who was smiling conspiratorially at him, "I take it Crescent Rose is safe from being replaced?"
Ruby looked horrified as he pulled Crescent Rose from his back and hugged it tight to his chest, "How could you say something like that Yang? No one could ever replace my baby! I was just scouting out the competition." Left unsaid was that a couple of the weapons had caught his eye, but only for what inspiration they could give him in future upgrades to his beloved gun-scythe.
Yang grinned and pulled his hood over his head before giving him a noogie through the Dust-infused material. "You are such a dork!"
She laughed while Ruby flushed and fought vainly to push her away, "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaang! Stop it! Yang!" The other students departing the bullhead spared the occasional glance but otherwise ignored the pair.
Yang eventually relented, pulling her hand away chuckling, but just as her laughter started to die out Ruby pulled back his hood indignantly and gave Yang what he no doubt thought was a wilting glare. It made Yang burst out with a few guffaws as Ruby attacked her with ineffective punches. Weak though his punches were, Yang made some effort to deflect, though laughing as she was more than a few of his fists got past her guard. A few more bystanders had started to notice the little altercation forming between the two siblings, though no one gave it too much heed, this was a huntsman academy, after all, it only really took weird types.
"Yang you're the worst! This is the biggest day of my, of our lives, and you still can't help but pick on me!?" Ruby's words were emphasized by a liberal sprinkling of punches. None of which seemed to even register a reaction from Yang, other than more laughter.
"I-ahaha-I'm sorry-hehehe-bro, but you're just too-hahahaha-cute!" This statement only elicited a frustrated growl from Ruby who redoubled his punching effort in a vain attempt to regain his ego and a masculinity that had been beaten down by Yang for years.
Eventually, Ruby had quite enough and resorted to his final tactic, other than drawing Crescent Rose and actually attacking his sister, he reared his arm back as far as he could and focused his mind on the aura gathered within it, then with a complicated manipulation of his aura that he was so use to it was almost automatic, it rocketed forward in a flurry of rose petals and a flash of fist. It caught Yang square in the side of the jaw, whipping her head sideways with a flash of aura. "How's that for cute!?"
Ruby immediately regretted it, though not because of any guilt. He knew that Yang's aura was large enough that it would have taken a couple dozen of punches like that to actually harm her, though a civilian would have probably suffered a broken jaw with one. The reason Ruby regretted attacking his sister with a semblance enhanced punch was not because he was afraid he had hurt her. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
Uh-oh, he thought as Yang slowly turned her head back to him, her eyes were closed and she was obviously forcing herself to take slow, calm breaths. Her hair glowed faintly with a familiar flame. "That? That was really, really cute little brother. But I think it's time I teach you how to punch for real!" And with that Yang's eyes exploded open like a blade being drawn from its sheathe as she yelled a battle cry that made Ruby's hair stand on end.
Ruby barely dodged his sister's fist, which would have hit him on the top of the head and sent him tumbling off the landing platform and onto the grass of the campus, not off the platform and down the half-mile to the water, thankfully. Ruby took some small comfort in that, since it hopefully meant Yang wasn't actually trying to kill him, but, he decided as he heard his sister scream behind him, chasing him across the grass, that it was a small comfort indeed.
"What's the matter bro? I punch like a girl too!"
A very small comfort.
Weiss Schnee was happy. It wasn't an entirely unusual feeling for her; she always had happy little times during the course of a day like most people did, when Klein snuck her a slice of cake not in her diet, for instance, or when Whitley tripped over his own lanky limbs. But this was a different kind of happiness, a kind she hadn't felt in years. This was more than momentary pleasure, more than some ephemeral state of bliss brought on by transitory events, this was actual joy. Joy at the thought of the future, joy that this day would be the start a new Weiss Schnee. No longer the princess in the tower, the girl behind father's legs, no, today marked the beginning of Weiss Schnee the woman, the Huntress!
She should have known that fate wouldn't allow that to stand. And so it shouldn't have come as a surprise when an incredible force struck her back and sent her tumbling into her luggage, which politely let her pass so she could eat a face full of concrete. Her aura glowed a dull white where she hit the ground as the sharp pain dulled and started to disappear, her anger, however, had no intention of going away.
And so with a huff of righteous indignation she pushed herself up from the ground and turned to find the person whose guts were about to become well acquainted with Myrtenaster. The quivering ball of red and black that stared up at her from the ground with quavering silver eyes was not the best sight to stoke the flame of anger inside her, and neither was the apparent boy's first words to her, "I'm really, really sorry! I didn't mean to run into you, I was running from m-"
Nevertheless, Weiss soldiered on to give this cute, no!, this annoying boy a piece of her mind, "What in the world are you doing!? Do you know how much Dust is in these?" She gestured angrily at her many suitcases now spread across the plaza. "You could have killed us!" That might not have been entirely true, since only an idiot would moved Dust around in containers that couldn't shield it from a little tumble, but that didn't mean you threw them around to test it!
The boy, whose gender was only confirmed by his voice, looked around in a sudden panic, "Oh no! I'm so, so sorry! Please, I really didn't mean to damage your Dust! I'll help you get it back together!" She was about to turn down his offer of help but before she could a flurry of rose petals surrounded her and darted to her fallen suitcases, they were returned to her dolly in a matter of seconds. The boy, whom she noted was a bit shorter than her, then stood before her with his eyes cast to the ground and sporting a sheepish smile, the last of her suitcases held out to her in his outstretched hands, "I'm really sorry about bumping into you, is there anything I can do to make it up to you? I, uh, I'm Ruby, by the way."
Another biting retort almost passed her lips, but then she noticed the lock and clasp on the suitcase held before her was broken and some cloth was stuck between its two halves, keeping the container slightly ajar. It was with a damning blush and tsunami of mortification that Weiss realized exactly what was in this suitcase. It was underwear, but not just any regular under garments, it was the, uh, well, the, Dammit Weiss you can't afford to stutter in your own head! It's lingerie! Her lingerie. One of several gifts she'd been given by production companies over her singing career. She'd refused the photo-shoot they'd offered alongside it, obviously, not that father would have let her anyway, but a not at all proper part of her had been unable to refuse the garments themselves. She'd only worn them once, alone in her room after she'd checked half a dozen times no one was going to sneak up on her, and to her immense pleasure and embarrassment, what a strange combination of emotions that had been, she had looked very good in them. She had decided to take them with her to Beacon, but more out of the fear that father would call her one day to ask about some clothes a maid had found in her room than any desire to use them.
Luckily, the boy in front of her was much too interested in staring at his shoes to notice exactly what it was he held in his arms. With a speed reminiscent of the semblance of the boy in front of her, for that was obviously what those rose petals had been, she snatched the suitcase from his hands and quickly stuffed the piece of showing cloth back into it before hiding it under a couple of other pieces of her luggage. When she turned back to the little red-hooded boy his head was even lower and he was scuffing a foot against the concrete, for all the world he looked like a sad puppy, but she had to put a clamp on these soft emotions if she was going to get anywhere with him, people wouldn't respect her if she acted weak, "You dolt! What in the world were you doing to wind up running into me anyway?"
Her question brought a sudden life to Ruby, who quickly jumped to his full height, which Weiss was pleased to see still remained below her, and he quickly checked over both his shoulders before spinning around to check the surrounding courtyard, "Oh no, how could I forget? She's going to kill me!"
"What ar-" she was cut off by a sudden roar of rage and a flash of yellow metal and flame streaking past her toward Ruby, thousands of hours of training kicked in naturally and in a split second she'd brought up a shielding glyph between the boy and his assailant. The fist struck the magical barrier and bounced off it with a powerful crack.
"Argh, what the fu-" Weiss had no idea why this girl was attacking Ruby, but she didn't feel like giving the girl the chance to turn her fists on herself, so taking action now to ask questions later she summoned another glyph underneath the girl that sent her several feet in the air and followed up with a quick burst of Dust from Myrtenaster which she altered with her glyphs. The shot of Dust split in two and wrapped around both of the girl's wrists, locking them at her sides. The blond girl, who was dressed a bit sparingly in Weiss' mind, turned her burning red eyes to regard her. "You better have a good explanation for this, whiteout!"
"Me!? You came flying out of nowhere to attack Ruby!" Weiss motioned to the boy, it took her mind a few seconds to realize he was laughing."Why are you laughing?"
Ruby didn't respond at first, preferring to continue his laughing and pointing at the blond girl. He walked over to her and raised a hand up as if to shake her hand, "Hey sis, need a hand?" And he sniggered.
To Weiss' confusion the blond's eyes immediately turned from red to lavender and she grinned down at Ruby, "Nah, bro, I'm just Yang-ing out!" The boy groaned and dropped his face into his hands. The girl turned back to regard Weiss, "Could you let me down now please?"
Weiss just stared at the two, convinced that the two apparent siblings were certifiably crazy.
"Yo, whiteout?"
Weiss' eye twitched at the nickname. This was not how she had envisioned the first day of her new life starting.
Chapter 4
Weiss sighed for the umpteenth time as she unfurled her sleeping bag. Beside her, and past the small wall of her suitcases she'd erected between them, Ruby yapped happily about some story or book or similar. To Weiss' continued amazement his blond sister laid beside him happily, nodding her head at the appropriate times and offering short comments. It was less of a conversation than a lecture really. Not for the first time that day Weiss found herself asking just how two siblings could be so different. Certainly there were differences between Winter, Whitley, and herself, quite large differences she liked to think. But they also had much in common, especially physically.
Ruby, her self-appointed "friend," had boundless energy but appeared to be somewhat shy considering he hadn't wandered more than ten feet from his sister the entire day, excluding when he ran into Weiss herself. He was annoyingly persistent in his claim that the two of them were friends, normally Weiss would have chalked it up to her fame as either a singer or heiress to the SDC, but neither of the two had made any comment to that effect.
She hadn't said or done anything to reinforce the boy's foolish notion that they were friends, but when it was time for the assembly Ruby and Yang had stayed with her. When they went to change into their sleepwear, Ruby and Yang stayed with her, well Yang was nearby, Ruby went to the male changing rooms of course. In fact, he was waiting right outside the female changing rooms when Yang emerged. When they went to lay out their sleeping bags, Yang and Ruby set up beside her. She had planned on moving, but nearly the entire room was covered by then and it really would have been more hassle than it was worth.
"…on't you thi- Weiss? Is something wrong?" Weiss was brought out of her memories with a start, realizing that she had been staring at the animatedly talking Ruby, who was now staring at her with some concern. His silver eyes were soft like afternoon couds and his head was tilted slightly, exactly like a confused puppy. She was not at all comfortable with how cute he was.
Nor was she comfortable with how her cheeks were starting to heat up, only in embarrassment, of course, certainly nothing else. "No! No, nothing's wrong. I just, like your hair?" What? Real smooth Weiss. Smooth as a frozen lake, maybe the ice will crack and I'll drown, that'd be a mercy.
While Weiss cursed herself internally for making an awkward situation ten times worse, she was saved by the, apparently boundless, naivete of Ruby, "Aww, thank you, Weiss! You're the first person who's ever told me that! Well, except for Yang and Mom. Y'know, some people think it's dyed, but it's actually totally natural. I probably spend twenty minutes on it every morning. Normally I-" And he was off again. Weiss wasn't normally one for stereotypes, at least the ones which were untrue, but she had to confess she'd never met a guy so interested in hair. Though, one look at his sister and she had a pretty good idea where he might have acquired it. "-Yang won't let me out of the house without checking my hair she says-" Yup, that wasn't a very hard inference. In fact, now that she was paying attention to him, he did have nice hair. It reminded her, unsurprisingly, of roses. "-and you have really beautiful hair too Weiss!"
The annoying, immature boy who had pestered her all day and completely destroyed her expectations of Beacon and her new life sat across from her after yapping in her ear for over an hour. His smile was wide and his eyes filled with the same joy she had felt inside of her early that day. Everything Weiss knew about herself told her she should have found this boy insufferable, and well, she did. But for some reason she just couldn't bring herself to some icy retort. For some reason the idea of seeing him as sad as he had been when he ran into her was not nearly as appealing as it should have been. You're getting soft, Weiss. "Thank you, Ruby. You're the first person to tell me that as well." The first person to tell me that who's not looking to get in father's good graces, she added internally.
Weiss' words shocked Ruby, "No way! There is no way no one has told you how beautiful your hair is! It's so pretty! I mean it's like-" And there he went again. As he laid compliment after compliment onto Weiss' hair and her apparent dedication to it, she couldn't keep the pride from swelling just a bit in her chest nor the slight blush creeping back into her cheeks.
Yang watched Weiss from the corner of her eye. Ostensibly she was sizing up the guys on the other side of the room just like one would expect from a scantily clad blond. Admittedly, the view wasn't half bad, aside from the lanky blond wearing a onesie, but the real show was happening much closer.
She still didn't understand just what her brother saw in this girl. She was pretty in a porcelain doll sort of way, and she certainly looked fragile enough to fit that metaphor. But there were plenty of prettier girls in the room, the chick reading next to the candle nearby was an easy nine out of ten. Still a long way from a perfect Xiao-Long patented ten out of ten, but then again, who wasn't?
Yang wasn't shallow, she could certainly understand liking someone for their personality. Just about anyone but Weiss, that was. If she had to describe Weiss' personality in three words it would have been, "Arrogant, icy bi-" and that's when Summer would have stepped in and told her to watch her language around her younger brother. Seriously, sometimes Summer acted like Yang and Ruby were ten years apart instead of two.
Regardless, in Yang's mind Weiss had neither the body nor the attitude to catch her brother's eye, let alone deserve his attention. If it hadn't been for Ruby's insistence on befriending her, Yang would have told "Weiss-cream" several hours ago where she could stick her icicle of an attitude. Yang could perhaps forgive some of Weiss' cold shoulder throughout the day, it had be Ruby and her following Weiss pretty much everywhere she went. Well, Ruby followed Weiss and Yang followed Ruby. In fact, Ruby had done really all the talking today, she and Weiss had barely spoken to each other. It was odd for him to be so talkative to a person he'd just met, but maybe he'd finally followed her advice to be more sociable. I guess it's true, be careful what you wish for.
But still, if this was the person Ruby wanted to befriend she'd support him in that obviously gargantuan effort, but somehow Yang doubted she'd wind up friends with the stuck-up girl. Honestly, she doubted the girl had ever had a friend with the way she acted.
Heh, maybe they're kindred spirits in poor social skills? It was an amusing thought to fall asleep with as Ruby continued to lavish praise on the girl who seemed equal parts pleased and exasperated by it.
Ruby Rose was a morning person. Well, really he was an all the time person if he was being honest with himself. Why waste time you could be training, or playing, or cleaning Crescent Rose? Yang's answer would be, "to relax," which was ridiculous. Every time Ruby had a down moment all he could think about was all the things he could be doing instead of standing around doing nothing. Which was why he was one of the first students up at the crack of dawn. This was his first full day at Beacon, there was absolutely no way he was wasting a single second of it.
In the gold and orange sleeping bag next to his own dark red one, Yang was sleeping peacefully, for her. It looked like she had tried to punch her way out of the confines of the sleeping bag several times throughout the night. And potentially had burned some of it with her semblance. But that's why all of Yang's sleeping supplies were flame retardant. Her hair was a bit tangled, so that meant well over an hour of maintenance if she had her way.
But when Ruby looked over to his other side what he saw made his breath catch. Not more than a foot away from him was the serene face of Weiss Schnee, sleeping as peacefully and beautifully as a lone white rose. Her perfect white hair framed her face and pooled beneath her to create the picture of delicate feminine beauty. Between Yang and Summer, Ruby hadn't had much experience with delicate females, and if he was being honest with himself the conscious Weiss Schnee hadn't been all that delicate either. But she looked entirely different now. So very peaceful.
Ruby did feel kind of bad for hounding the girl all day, yesterday, but despite what many, more or less correctly, thought of his social awareness, Weiss Schnee was blunt enough for even Ruby Rose to get the point. Ruby had dealt with rejection by would-be friends many times back at Signal, he had had some friends, true, but of those few most seemed much more interested in his sister's body than anything else. But he had tried many times to, "put himself out there," as Yang said, and he had failed many times. And that was why Ruby Rose knew exactly what rejection looked like, and for all her coldness, sarcasm, and sarcasm, Weiss Schnee had never told him to leave her alone. And last night she seemed like she might even be starting to enjoy spending time with him.
Ruby was so caught up in his memories of yesterday and the beauty of the girl next to him that it took his mind a few seconds to realize that something had changed about Weiss' face. It took a few more seconds for him to realize that the change was two blue orbs staring at him with an emotion quite different from the peaceful, feminine delicacy she had radiated a few moments before, "Ruby. Why did I wake up with you staring at me?"
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… "Your face is really pretty." …hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Well that didn't sound weird at all, congratulations Ruby, first potential friend at Beacon and you screw it up by perving on her. Maybe if Weiss doesn't kill me I can spray whipped cream into Yang's hair and have her kill me instead.
But instead of running Ruby through with her rapier the white girl huffed and turned over onto her other side, "You idiot."
What Ruby didn't see as he and Weiss both got up and started to sort their things and get their clothes for the day's coming initiation, was the slight blush on Weiss' cheeks, and, of course, the cold death the glare of her eyes promised, though Ruby was smart enough to guess the latter existed.
Yang was not a morning person, and by the time she awoke both Ruby and Weiss had completely cleaned their former bedding spots and had gone and changed into their combat clothes, alongside a good three quarters of the first year hopefuls.
"Yaaaaaaaaaaaang," Ruby whined into his sister's ear as he pulled on one of her arms, "we're going to be late."
"Hmmm, shut up Zwei, I'm still sleeping, go bother Ruby."
"Yaaaaaaaaaang! I'm serious!"
Yang responded by groaning and covering her face with her arms, conveniently it blocked her smirk from Ruby's view, "Ruby? What time is it? Go back to bed, I'm sure your girlfriend is cold without you."
"Yang, it's like seven thir-WAIT WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" Ruby's cheeks were suddenly far more red than even his namesake and his eyes shone bloody murder. Luckily, Weiss was not nearby, having gone to get breakfast, Ruby had, of course, promised to catch up with her when Yang woke up. Weiss, for her part, had called him an idiot and left, but, Ruby noted at the time, she hadn't told him not to. "I swear to Dust, Atlesian Premium Cookies, and Crescent Rose I will slice your head off like a stalk of wheat if you ever say that again, Xiao-Long!" Ruby had his hands around Yang's wrists and was staring straight into her eyes with red, hot anger. Yang half expected Ruby to blink and have red eyes.
She had a sneaking suspicion she had hit a nerve with her little brother if this was how he reacted; he never called her by her last name unless he was actually furious. Which meant unless she ate his cookies or forgot to buy oil for Crescent Rose, or, apparently, suggest he had feelings for Weiss Schnee. Bro, you have horrible taste in women. Maybe it was because Yang was the epitome of feminine perfection, perfect hair, perfect body, perfect personality, and the ability to punch through six feet of reinforced concrete. He must be overcompensating to stay away from girls who remind him of me! No wonder he went for Flatty McBitchcicle.
She'd have to do something about that. I always knew this day would come. Don't worry Ruby, big sis can play matchmaker as long as you need her to!
solutely no way I'd ever have feelings like that for her." Apparently Yang had zoned out while Ruby was talking, not an uncommon situation.
Yang yawned and stretched, arching her back and stretching her legs. Any guy her age would have been left with an open mouth and the pitching of a tent after seeing her bust strain valiantly against her tight top and her stretch showing off all of her curves, not to mention she imagined her bed hair would be a turn on for some too. As she looked around she noticed that quite a few of the guys remaining in the room were looking her way, some out of the corner of their eyes and some staring openly. More than a few glanced jealously at Ruby, no doubt mistaking their relationship. Yang winked at a couple of the guys who stared and maintained her gaze, Yang Xiao-Long appreciated courage.
Ruby, for his part, looked at his bombshell of a sister with only confusion, "Yang? What are you doing?"
Yang smiled widely at him and winked happily, "I can't let my little brother get laid before I do!"
"Wha-YAAAAAAAAAANG-AH!" His protests were cut off as Yang grabbed him by the shoulders and bear hugged him into her ample bosom. Quite a few guys were staring now, some with disbelief and all with envy.
"What's the matter Ruby, can't handle a real woman like your big sister, Yang Smoking-Hot Xiao-Long?" Yang eased up on her grip enough for Ruby to pull back and gasp for air.
He also took the time to glare at her and make his displeasure known, "One day I'm going to cut these swollen lumps of fat right off of you Xiao-Lo-Mmmpf!"
Yang smiled easily as Ruby struggled over dramatically to break free of her, because pretend to struggle all he liked he didn't try to push his head away from her. In fact, as he flailed his arms about he actually relaxed into her chest and rested his head against her. And after a couple of minutes when Yang had had enough fun and let him go, he wrapped his arms around her and gave her the quickest and shortest possible hug he could without using his semblance.
Yang Xiao-Long knew that every guy loved her boobs, her brother included. He just liked them in a different way.
And as he fussed around her and gathered her things together for her, probably to distract himself from the knowledge that he actually loved his sister so he could more easily be angry at her, Yang smiled and laughed at him. All the while the warmth on her breasts from where he had lain his head against her dissipated, and she remembered all the other countless times his head had rested there. Sad times, like the long months after their father had died and Summer had nearly shut down, when every night he had pressed his head against her bosom and sobbed and she had held him to her and cried with him. And happy times, like when Ruby finished Crescent Rose and the first thing he had done after testing it was to run to his big sister and snuggle up to her and laugh and cry tears of joy. Even now that memory threatened to bring tears to her eyes. He had worked tirelessly for months on Crescent Rose and failed numerous times, and he had come to her to cry and vent every time as well, and when he finally succeeded the first person he had gone to was her, he came to her even before he went to Summer.
It would be fair to say Yang saw herself almost as Ruby's second mother. His young, smoking hot, and effortlessly cool step-mother, obviously.
And throughout her entire life the only constant had been Ruby. He was her little brother, surrogate son, and best friend, and she could admit to herself that even though she had tried for years to get Ruby to open up to other people more, a petty, selfish part of her was afraid of losing him to someone else. Ruby had a beautiful, beautiful soul, and he was no doubt the most selfless, compassionate, and just all around good person Yang had ever met, and she knew that eventually he'd have to come more into his own and share that soul with the world.
But selfish or not, there was no way in hell that Yang Xiao-Long was going to step back and willingly play second fiddle to her brother's affection. If Weiss Schnee, the Pyrrha Nikos, or the Empress of Mistral wanted a place in Ruby's heart, they would have to stand in line and go through her first. And Yang could promise that she would be very, very selective in who got past her.
But when Ruby tugged on her arm once again, shoved her combat clothes into her arms, walked past her luggage that he had packed for her, and looked back at her to tell her to hurry up with his adorable silver eyes set into the cutest little glare he thought was intimidating, Yang had to admit to herself, it was going to be a very long line.
Yang smirked and cracked her knuckles, It's going to be fun playing matchmaker.
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Author's Notes: Hello everyone! After searching 's mess of a user interface for an author's note feature, I finally realized I just have to insert it myself. And it only took me about three weeks to figure that out! Yay, go me! (If I'm wrong please call me an ugly idiot and tell me where it is!)
Let me just take a minute to tell you what this story is suppose to be. R(uby)63 Rose will cover primarily the relationship of the member's of Team RWBY if Ruby Rose was a guy. It will have romance, cuteness, fighting, sadness, and quite a few cuddles. And Weiss being the Queen of Tsunderes, Yang being the Yangiest big sister possible, Blake being the cutest black cat at Beacon, and Rby Rose being the most naive, passionate, and adorable future huntsman you've ever seen. I'd also like to state R(uby)63 Rose is kind of a "warm up" fic for me. I've been away from fanfiction for awhile so I'm using the pretty simple concept of this story to get used to this whole "writing" thing again. I'm going to do my best to stabilize both the size and frequency of uploads of the chapters of this here story. Ideally, I'd like to hit around 5k words a chapter and update twice a week. So we'll see if that pans out.
I have some more ambitious and well made stories in the works and I look forward to sharing those with you guys sometime soon!
Thanks for taking the time to read my little story and my boring author's note! Have a great day and ciao!
P.S. Just noticed that .rtf files have not been keeping my line breaks to differentiate POV shifts. Very sorry about that, but they should all be fixed now!
Chapter 5
Beacon
Weiss didn't like standing in lines. Few people did, she imagined. But at least they had some amount of experience with them; Weiss was fairly certain this was the first time she had ever stood in a public line. Back in Atlas she had stood in what could be called lines to be introduced at balls or galas, or had stood behind her father to pay condolences to the families of important persons at funerals, but she had never in her life stood in line for food.
The girl in front of her was chatting incessantly with some other girl, their volume entirely too loud for how close they were and how early it was. The guy behind her was ten times worse, however. Jaune Arc had her quickly reevaluating her understanding of how annoying the opposite gender could be. Ruby was hyper, a little awkward, and cut-, no! Not cute, he's annoying, remember that Weiss. Jaune Arc, on the other hand, was everything wrong with every suitor she'd ever had back in Atlas, except dressed worse. He was arrogant, stupid, and clearly incapable of detecting her disinterest, "So, uh, how you liking Beacon Snow Angel?"
What did he just call me? "What did you just call me?"
"Uh, S-Snow Angel?" At least he had the presence of mind to cringe at the glare she sent after him for such a childish and demeaning pet name.
"If you ever call me that again, Arc, I promise you they will never find your body." That was probably a bit colder, and more threatening, than the boy deserved, but she was hungry, sick of waiting in this glacial line, and he'd been hitting on her for nearly ten minutes straight. Honestly, he was lucking she hadn't turned him into a pin cushion for Myrtenaster yet.
"O-oh, uhm, sorry." The blond idiot scratched the back of his neck and stared at his shoes and left her in peace for the next couple of minutes it took the line to convey her to the serving station. She'd been planning on a couple of blueberry crepes with a dollop of cream cheese and a bowl of mixed berries, but apparently that was far too much to ask and her choices were either a bowl of cold, sugary cereal and an orange, or a piece of toast and a couple of fried eggs. Weiss sighed and reluctantly took a bowl of cereal and an orange. How much is this school's endowment again?
Behind her she heard the idiot Arc pick up his plate. She had absolutely no desire to continue her "conversation" with the boy and so felt this strange combination of relief and resigned frustration when she spotted Ruby across the cafeteria waving her over. She approached the table Ruby and Yang were sat at and started to feel rather foolish when she noticed they both had bags containing muffins, fruits, and color-coordinated thermoses. Yellow and gold with coffee for Yang and red and black with hot chocolate for Ruby, according to Weiss' nose. She sat down across from Ruby and through a monumental effort of willpower managed not to stare straight down into her cold, soggy cereal and pout like a child.
"Hey Weiss!" Ruby greeted with far too much cheer and energy for her mood. He looked over at her with his big, stupid silver eyes and almost made her forget about her abysmal breakfast situation; right before he took a giant bite out of a chocolate chip cookie that had no right to look as freshly baked as it did. She glanced over to Yang, finding the blond talking rather animatedly with a group of students a few seats down the table from her. One more glance back to Ruby, who was happily munching away on a variety of homemade delectables, very happily actually, Weiss was pretty certain she'd never seen anyone look so thrilled while eating, and she looked back down to her cold, soggy cereal and, with a small, resigned sigh, ate a spoonful of it.
It was bad. Not inedible, not sickening, just bland, soggy flakes of cheap cereal in what might actually have been watered-down milk. It was, however, the worst thing Weiss had ever eaten. Well, besides that one time she'd gotten so sick from bad Mistralian sushi she'd been briefly hospitalized. At least in that instance the restaurant had nearly gone out of business from the bad publicity and army of food inspectors that descended upon it after accidentally poisoning her. She somehow doubted she'd acquire the same measure of revenge against the Beacon Academy cafeteria.
Looking around once more she found that most of her fellow students had brought their own food. Maybe it's part of the initiation, poison the students foolish enough to trust the food given to them. It was a half-amusing idea to ponder as she forced the next spoonful of cereal down her throat. As much as she'd love to turn her nose up at the food, she knew she'd need the energy for whatever task lay ahead.
About half way through the bowl she'd decided that she'd had about all she cared for. Even Klein couldn't have convinced her to eat anymore, not that he'd even try. No doubt he'd make something fresh and delicious just for her and gently keep her at the table until she'd eaten all of it, he was always going on about how she was too thin.
"You okay Weiss?" She looked up from absentmindedly staring into the bowl of cereal to find Ruby staring at her with concern in his sterling eyes, and a half eaten chocolate chip cookie in his hand.
"I'm fine. Merely unimpressed with the fare." She huffed.
Ruby tilted his head in confusion, idly taking another bite of his cookie, "What's fair?"
Weiss blinked, then sighed into her hand, cradling her face, "Oh you have got to be kidding me… The food you imbecile!" She motioned to it, exasperated.
"Oh. Yeah it does look pretty bad." He agreed before finishing his cookie gusto. Weiss tore her gaze away from the boy and settled back to stare at her reflection in the soggy bowl of cereal. Abruptly, her vision was invaded by the sight of a brown blob. Instinctively leaning back from the object, she found the added distance allowed it to come into focus and be revealed. Before her, outstretched in Ruby's hand, sat a chocolate chip cookie. Common fare, if ever there was. It was a far cry from the professionally made crepes, tiramisu, and other pastries she was use to, and it was the most delectable looking thing she'd ever seen. "Want a cookie? I think I have some fruit somewhere too." He said as forced the cookie into Weiss' nearly paralyzed arms.
The smell, oh by the Moon, how can a chocolate chip cookie smell so good? It was beyond unseemly for her to be so captivated by the treat, yet she couldn't help that the world seemed to enter slow motion as she brought it to her lips. The first bite almost killed her. It was like eating for the first time. She barely noticed the plastic bag of sliced fruits that Ruby handed her, or the thermos cap of coffee he stole from Yang that was pushed her way. When the last of the cookie was consumed she met Ruby's elated countenance with her own desperate one. She had to have another one of those cookies. "Ruby, I, that was-"
Ruby handed over another cookie with a winsome, toothy smile, "Here you go Weiss! No one can eat just one of Summer Rose's, that's my mom, cookies!"
Weiss managed to control herself enough to not immediately devour the cookie whole, I'll not be defeated by a bit of fried dough! No matter how sublime it might taste, and favored her pastry patron with a sheepish smile, "Thank you, Ruby."
Ruby nodded happily, and, through a mouthful of cookie, replied, "Yeur welckmum!"
Blake Belladonna surveyed the cafeteria casually, looking for all the world like the bookish introvert she planned to portray herself as. And, she had to admit, that's kind of what she was, at least partially. She was settled comfortably in a quiet corner of the room, a small table all to herself and a quick escape through the unlocked kitchen door, if needed. A purchased latte and cheap romance novel fit right into her new persona, and when she took a small moment to focus on them she found she was enjoying them herself. The field rations she'd brought with her after defecting weren't exactly delicacies, but they were nourishing, and she wasn't prepared to trust what was served at Beacon. Plus, the bitter, salty aftertaste hit just the right note with her more primal nature.
Her fellow first-year hopefuls were interesting. Somewhere north of a hundred colorfully dressed young warriors. It made her nervous seeing all these trained humans in one place, despite the handful of obvious faunus that dwelt, with varying levels of acceptance, among them. She'd encountered huntsmen before, of course, not to mention that all the top White Fang agents, and former agents, like herself, where given what was essentially the same training. But it was very different to encounter a handful of them in the middle of their own mission in the wilderness as opposed to a hundred eager, idle ones no doubt itching for a fight. Not to say that she wasn't looking forward to some action herself, quite the opposite actually. It was going to be nice to vent her fear and guilt on some unequivocally deserving foes.
There was no doubt she'd be able to pass whatever initiation Ozpin and his staff had planned. Presumably, the entrance exam was more challenging and that had practically been a warm-up. It might have been too easy if the reaction of her proctor had been any indication. She had to consciously avoid cringing at the memory, more than likely she was now at the attention of Ozpin or his right hand Glynda Goodwitch. Hopefully merely as a gifted student and not a potential affiliate of the White Fang. What if someone finds out? If I can't be a huntress, what's next? The thought had haunted her since she decided to leave the Fang, and no good answer had come to her. She could always run back home to Menagerie, but what then?
She sighed and closed her book, It's not worth worrying about right now anyway. I haven't been found out. I'm safe. I can make things right. I can make things right. It was easier to think than to believe.
Still, skipping past initiation, she was going to have to deal with a team of three other students for potentially up to four years. That would be tricky. Certainly it would be impossible to hide her faunus nature for that long, but the White Fang affiliation should be possible to conceal from them, probably. What am I doing? This is crazy. She made to sip her latte but found it empty, how long had she been sitting here, lost in memory and doubt? Long enough to run out of caffeine, she snorted.
Going stir crazy would have to wait for another day, however, as the voice of Glynda Goodwitch came over the intercom and instructed all first-years to assemble at the cliffs for initiation. As she made to leave, Blake was surprised to discover the cafeteria mostly devoid of students. No doubt the majority had gone to retrieve their weapons from the lockers they'd all been assigned the night before. Blake would sooner cut off her ears, all four of them, than go without Gambol Shroud in this place.
Maybe things won't be so bad. There are good humans out there, and if there ever was a good human surely they'd be a huntsman. Blake Belladonna, the huntress. She smiled, it did sound pretty good. Who knows, maybe I'll even make a friend? It didn't seem likely, but she'd been fighting the odds for as long as she could remember. Why start accepting reality now?
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Author's Notes: Long time no see everyone. This is a short update that finished up a scrap of a scene that was languishing on a forgotten flash drive for like a year. More regular, and beefier, updates should follow in the coming days and weeks. Along with, potentially, a new story(ies).
Ciao.
Chapter 6
Ruby was practically vibrating. Not exactly an uncommon state for him, Yang would admit, but he was really excited right now. He was so excited, in fact, that he wasn't even talking. Normally, when even the most mildly interesting thing occurred Ruby would be all over it, talking nonstop. It was easily her brother's most annoying trait, as more than a few aura-fueled sibling fights over the years proved. Yang thought she was a pretty expressive and easygoing person, but even she wanted peace and quiet sometimes. Ruby, however, was only quiet when he was focused. That level of focus from him was reserved for sweets, mourning, and anything and everything related to fighting and becoming a huntsman. Initiation into the first-year class at Beacon definitely ticked one of those boxes. Thus, he was spending the entire walk to the cliffs obsessing over Crescent Rose, oiling it endlessly and testing every mechanism in it. How he managed to do that and avoid tripping over himself Yang doubted she would ever know.
Weiss, who, for reasons beyond Yang's comprehension, had apparently (maybe?) become Ruby's first friend at Beacon followed not far behind him. As opposed to Ruby, who was hunched over his weapon, Weiss walked confidently and gracefully, greeting everyone around her who looked even remotely competent or connected. Yang had known a few people like her before, schmoozers and users. The kind who seemed like the most caring friend in the world until you didn't have anything more to offer them. This scion of the infamous Schnee family, not at all to Yang's surprise, was the exemplar of this type of person as far as she could tell. She didn't trust her at all. But she could wait to deal with Weiss until after the initiation, assuming Weiss passed it.
Yang herself was almost shivering with anticipation. Years of training, long, weary nights under Summer's relentless tutelage, grueling days of endless exercise and sparring at Signal, humiliation and elation, failure and triumph, almost every day of her life that she could remember had been spent preparing her for Beacon, and now just one final obstacle remained. Anything that got in her way today was going to meet a quick and violent fate at the end of Ember Celica.
Today was going to be a good day.
Today was the greatest day in history, Ruby was sure.
Today would put him on the final stretch to being a huntsman. Today would open wide his destiny. It was his destiny.
Everything in his path was going to feed Crescent Rose, and Ruby felt she was almost feral with hunger today.
Yang was her usual, cocky self, all swagger and strut. Sometimes Ruby was convinced there wasn't a serious bone in her body, but he knew that deep down she was probably as nervous as him. At any rate, he would bet she was just as eager to sink her fists into some Grimm as he was to loose Crescent Rose on them. It ran in the family. Weiss seemed pretty happy, too. She hadn't even scowled at him once since he shared breakfast with her!
Weiss certainly wasn't who Ruby had envisioned to be his first friend at Beacon, not least because she was, well, Weiss Schnee, famous, talented, wealthy, and not someone Ruby had ever envisioned as a huntress. Admittedly, Ruby only had a casual appreciation for her music and had known almost nothing about her personally until he literally ran into her the day before. Still, heiress and music idol seemed like a fairly rare resume for huntsman academy students. It's really frickin' cool though! I bet Weiss is an awesome fighter. I wonder if she'll want to be on a team with me? Of course she will! If only to get more of Mom's cookies! Ruby snickered to himself, he could definitely assemble a team with the promise of Summer Rose's cookies.
A sudden impact with his sister's back had Ruby realize they had reached the cliffs. Professors Ozpin and Glynda were both there and instructed Ruby and his fellow first-years to assemble on the launchpads. They didn't return his wave, but he heard Weiss mutter something about him. Probably appreciating my friendliness! Ruby imagined.
The rules of the initiation procedure were explained to them, and Ruby couldn't quite hide his surprise at the revelation that eye contact would determine his partner for at least the next four years. There was probably some logic to that method, maybe, but Ruby found his gaze drifting to Yang. He'd have to keep a very close eye on her trajectory if he wanted a chance to partner with her.
Weiss had wanted to partner with Pyrrha Nikos in the locker room, and Ruby couldn't blame her. Pyrrha would definitely be Ruby's third choice of partner after Yang and Weiss. She was a legend of the Mistral tournament scene, even Summer Rose had commented on her skill when Ruby finally pestered her enough to watch some tournaments with him. But maybe Weiss would end up with that blond guy instead, they seemed like they were having a good time together in the locker room.
A jab in the shoulder from Yang brought Ruby out of his partner worries. She grinned, threw on a pair of aviators that Ruby had told her many times before he thought made her look ridiculous, and then she was thrown into the air, hooting her excitement. Ruby just shook his head, Yang is such a showoff, and then he fell into a ready stance.
A second later air was rushing past his ears and the ground was rapidly shrinking beneath him. Shouts and screams came from the multitude of students around him. Some merely expressions of enjoyment, others vainly attempting to communicate with someone else. Yang, Ruby was distressed to discover, was accelerating far ahead of the rest of the pack by using blasts from Ember Celica to propel herself. Does Yang really not want to partner with me? And she's going to get totally lost out there! Ugh, she is so reckless!
Ruby felt his speed decreasing rapidly as he neared the apex of his arc. He looked around desperately for Weiss, but just as he spotted her his cloak fell over his face and obstructed his vision. He gasped, surprised, and managed to inhale some of the dust-infused garment. It tasted like pepper, frustration, and Yang laughing at him. Spluttering, he started tumbling out of control, vision still mostly obstructed by his cloak. He tried to get his arms up and around the top cloak to hold it down but somehow managed to get them tangled up as well, including getting one of his arms stuck through his shirt's collar and jammed uncomfortably against his face. This never happens to mom! Curse your sudden, but inevitable, betrayal cloak! Certain that nothing worse could happen before he impacted the forest, Ruby was figuratively slapped in the face with a fish by fate as he literally impacted a crow mid-flight. The black bird croaked distressingly as it too became entangled in Ruby Rose's flying circus.
More than fed up enough with his situation, and not at all enjoying the crow frantically pecking his abdomen, Ruby uttered a manly roar, that may or may not have put the shrillness of the crow's caws to shame, and exploded into a dense cloud of rose petals. Immediately, he felt refreshed and focused, his personal concerns and conflicts melting away to a pure view of the world, ballistics. For a serene moment all that existed was his trajectory and the comfort of high speed with purpose.
The trajectory he was on suited him, and he willed his body back to cohesion. The crow's calls could be heard receding above him as he hurtled toward the forest canopy. He focused on his heartbeat, focused his aura on Crescent Rose, and precisely one second before impact pulled her around from his back, deployed her, and caught a tree branch with her. Two full rotations killed most of his speed and he retracted the head of Crescent Rose to allow him to fall the rest of the way to the ground, rose petals trailing behind him as the tree branch snapped off. The landing was a little harder than he'd wanted it, but the sting of the sixty-foot drop was barely a mild ache thanks to his aura.
He flourished Crescent with a couple of tight spins in preparation to holster her. A growl from behind had him stop mid-spin, Crescent Rose pointed straight down. Ruby smirked. The growl had the gravelly, canine yip of a Beowolf. He heard only one, but Beowolves never traveled alone, there was certainly at least one more. He waited for two heartbeats, the Grimm growled again, and then Ruby shot Crescent Rose, propelling him a dozen feet in the air as the Beowolf's claws hit only rose petals and air. A half spin of Crescent Rose, another shot, and Ruby was impaling the creature's neck with the spike on the bottom of Crescent Rose's shaft. The Grimm managed a short yelp before it was decapitated.
Two terse barks from his left and he brought Crescent Rose up to hold it like a rifle, a single bullet eviscerated the Beowolf's head. Ruby used the recoil to spin around with a flurry of Crescent Rose and fell into a ready stance with Crescent Rose held behind him eager to slash and tear. Something scratched the bark of a branch above him and not half a second later Crescent Rose cut through the space above him. A shower of leaves and cleanly sliced branches rained around him as two halves of a Beowolf landed on either side of him.
He waited. For five heartbeats. Ten heartbeats.
Twenty heartbeats.
Forty.
Eighty.
Finally, he sighed, flourished Crescent Rose, sheathed her with a "job well done" pat, and stretched. I so needed that. He thought to himself as he walked away from the ten second battlefield. He had an idea of where Weiss had landed and whistled as he made his way towards her, repacking his magazine as he went.